Nora Rubel

Nora Rubel is the Jane and Alan Batkin Professor in Jewish Studies and Associate Professor of Religion at the University of Rochester's School of Arts & Sciences, Department of Religion and Classics. She chairs the department and holds affiliations with the Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, and the Frederick Douglass Institute for African and African American Studies. Rubel earned her PhD in American Religions from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2005), with a dissertation on ultra-Orthodox Jewish imagery in American culture.

Her research focuses on American religion, race/ethnicity, and religion-food intersections. Notable works include Doubting the Devout (2009) and Religion, Food, and Eating in North America (2014, co-edited). She has held leadership roles in the American Academy of Religion, steering committees on religion-food studies, and academic service roles at multiple institutions.

Rubel’s scholarship bridges historical and contemporary topics, examining Jewish identity through foodways, media representation, and communal practices. Her articles and lectures address topics like cookbooks as cultural artifacts, Yom Kippur rituals, and Black-Jewish religious movements. She has received grants from the American Academy of Religion, Schlesinger Library, and others. Beyond academia, she engages public audiences through media commentary on Jewish communities and cultural issues.